The present invention is directed to a dual side album leaf and method and apparatus for making the album leaf.
Prior art photographic albums typically require the consumer to manually insert conventional prints into a classic sleeve, or use adhesive to bond conventional prints to blank album pages. This is a time consuming, difficult operation that provides less than satisfactory results. Consumers often procrastinate and do not place prints in albums when they receive them from the photofinisher, risking loosing time and event references. A further disadvantage in the prior art photographic albums is that the pages are not uniform in texture, the reflections from the plastic sleeves interfere with viewing, and are prone to tearing. When adhesives are used to maintain the prints in the album, alignment becomes critical. Additionally, many adhesives can damage a print and often fail after time, thus, allowing the prints to fall out of the album. In addition, the multiple layers make for very thick album pages, thus limiting the number of images that can be stored in a given album. Also, in addition to purchasing separate binder album pages, adhesive and other items are sometimes required to be purchased.
It is known in the art to bind prints in a single album, such as a Qualex Galaxy Print Book, but this is limited to one image per single sided page.
It is also known in the art that montage prints can be made by digital and conventional optical techniques. However, these montage prints are limited in that they are only available in single-sided form and not specifically designed for use directly into an album.
It has been disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,791,692 that a dual sided album leaf can be made by folding of a sheet having images on one side so as to produce a single album leaf having images on both sides. While this invention has provided a method of producing images on both sides of an album leaf made of photographic media, there is still a need to provide a method and apparatus for producing multiple album pages in a continuous manner both on photosensitive media and standard media.
The present invention solves many of the problems of the prior art that provides a method of making a unitary dual sided album leaf which is relatively easy to produce, relatively thin in construction, on both photosensitive and standard media, and requires no further mounting by the user.
In accordance with one aspect of the present invention there is provided an apparatus for making a photo album page comprising:
a first supply of a media having a front and back side, the front side is such that digital images may be printed thereon;
a first print head located adjacent the front side of the media;
a second supply of a second media having a front and back side, the front side of the second media is such that digital images may be printed thereon;
a second print head for providing images on the front side of the second media;
a transport mechanism for advancing the first media along a first path and advancing a second media along a second processing path, the first path and second path being positioned such that initially the paths are initially separated and later combined to form a single processing path such that the back sides of first media and second media will be co-extensive with each other; and
a securing mechanism for bringing together and securing the first media and second media so as to form a substantially integral web.
In accordance with yet another aspect of the present invention there is provided a method for making a photo album page, comprising the steps of:
providing a first supply of a first media on which digital images may be printed, the media having a front side and back side;
printing images on the front side of the media with a first print head;
means for advancing the first media;
providing a second supply of a second media having a front and back side;
printing images on the front side of the second media;
advancing the first media along a first processing path;
advancing the second media along a second processing path, the first and second path being positioned such that initially the paths are separated and later combined to form a single processing path such that the first and second media will be co-extensive with each other; and
bringing together and securing the first media and second media.
In accordance with yet still another aspect of the present invention there is provided a method for printing digital image on a media, comprising the steps of:
The above, and other objects, advantages and novel features of the present invention will become more apparent from the accompanying detailed description thereof when considered in conjunction with the following drawings.